i am angry!!!!no city view?!

[Chronus]

Hmmmm ... I'm a little concerned about the interface myself. Ralf pointed out the "screens within screens" and many tabs which kind of annoys me. I enjoy CTP but my greatest complaint is how difficult it is to get something done. Introducing the game to a Civ-lover friend of mine resulted in failure because he had to wend his way through multiple tabs to view the information he needed. In a nutshell, this is a good way to deter new players.

I thought I read somewhere that a simple, one city screen (similar to Civ2) was available as an option. MarkG, if you read this, can you verify? Thanks, in advance.

[MarkG]

quote: Originally posted by Chronus on 11-11-2000 10:08 AM I thought I read somewhere that a simple, one city screen (similar to Civ2) was available as an option. MarkG, if you read this, can you verify? Thanks, in advance.

nothing like that. the City Manager has 5 tabs. see the 4 of them
http://apolyton.net/ctp2/images/view...y4-cityman.jpg

it all depends on how much you want to micromanage. for example, on my current game the only micromanagment i do is to not use the mayours and do the build queues myself(which is done via the Build Manager). i very rarely have to use the City Manager

[DarkOrder]

There is a city manager. In this window you can select the build menu which allows you to build units, buildings/improvments, and wonders. The rest of the stuff in the city manager are sorted through with tabs. There is an imropvemnets window (shows what buildings/improvements your city has), a specialists window (where you can set citizens to specialize in city happiness, food production, commerse(gold), science, and production. There is also the state of your city window that shows how happy your people in that city are and if they receive any bonus (+1 if you build a shrine) or negatives(-1 from pollution). To change cities there is a popdown city seletor (has arrows as well) that allows you to change quickly from one city to another.

There is no city "picture," you will be too busy keeping your cities running smoothly to need such a thing. Mayors are okay, but your cities will grow faster if you don't use them. I found using them only acceptable if I had more than 10 cities and suddenly went to war. The problem is, the mayor may take fifteen turns to create a city wall, instead of a samuraii. You can go straight to the build manager of a city without opening the city manager.
The fastest way to grow your empire:
1. build at least 5 settlers as fast as possible.
2. have a settler settle on a rich piece of land (15 Food, !5 production, 10 commerce), rivers through plains are ideal, with good land next to them.
3. Allow for expansion, don't put all fof your cities right on top of each other. This takes away from the resources being gathered.
4. Put all citizens into food production until your city is size 7 or you need units.
5. build food tile improvments as soon as they become available (farms or nets).
6. Make sure you leave a military unit to defend your city. Nothing worse than a barbarian wandering into an unprotected city and taking it over.

Any other questions

[Chronus]

Is the player still allowed to assign keys to particular tabs and commands? I've been assuming all along that this feature is still there but I thought I'd ask anyway.

CTP was far more bearable when I was able to set up these hot keys myself (the defaults are painful to even think about). One nice feature about CTP was scrolling through the cities with a keystroke (not the mouse). I'm not aware of that feature in Civ2.

[Slax]

DarkOrder - You have all the answers....Umm...Who the heck are you and why do you have all the answers?

[DarkOrder]

I am a cyber ninja. Didn't I say that in another post already? Now if I can just evade those damn Marines. They blew my torso off last time and it was a real mess getting it put back on. (*sneaks away*)

Smooshies
[This message has been edited by DarkOrder (edited November 11, 2000).]

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by DarkOrder on 11-11-2000 01:14 PM You can go straight to the build manager of a city without opening the city manager.

DarkOrder: I have only two easy-to-answer questions that would make all the difference in the world:

- If i click (double-click?) any of my cities on the map; what manager pops up? The Build-manager or the City-manager?

- If theres nothing more to build in one of my cities; what manager pops up? The City-manager for that city, or the overall build-manager?

If you (or anyone with 100% knowledge) can answer that, it would be great.

[DarkOrder]

well I will try:

If i click (double-click?) any of my cities on the map; what manager pops up?

The City-manager

You can select the build manager from the city manager at any time. I think it is easier to think of the managers as national. You can select between cities while in a manager very easily. So with a few clicks you can change from city build manager in city 1-** and set them all to build a building or unit.
You can access the build que for a specific city from the tabs UI as well.

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by DarkOrder on 11-11-2000 03:21 PM The City-manager

Great! That was the answer i wanted to hear! Now, if the city-manager *also* pops up automatically if theres nothing more to build in any single city - that would be even better. Correct?

Thanks, the other info was also reassuring. Perhaps i ranted to early about that interface. I must try this game out properly first, before i comment any further on the interface.

[MarkG]

quote: Originally posted by Ralf on 11-11-2000 03:35 PM Now, if the city-manager *also* pops up automatically if theres nothing more to build in any single city - that would be even better.

it doesnt
you get a message in the message tab and the name of the city on the map turns yellow

btw, as darkorder said, double-click on a city gives you the city manager. right-click on a city gives you a menu with the following: city manager, build manager, rename city, activate all units and several other commands...

and of course, almost all(if not all) screens have a (editable) keyboard shortcut

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by MarkG on 11-11-2000 05:49 PM it doesnt you get a message in the message tab and the name of the city on the map turns yellow

...And the map automatically re-centers on that City with the yellow-coloured name, RIGHT???

If it does, its OK!

[MarkG]

quote: Originally posted by Ralf on 11-11-2000 06:29 PM ...And the map automatically re-centers on that City with the yellow-coloured name, RIGHT???

if you have auto-cycle turned-on, it will center to the city at the end of your turn

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by MarkG on 11-11-2000 10:40 AM it all depends on how much you want to micromanage. for example, on my current game the only micromanagment i do is to not use the mayours and do the build queues myself(which is done via the Build Manager). i very rarely have to use the City Manager

Well, for those who mainly moves around units outside the cities in order to conquer the world, that perhaps OK.

But for us who wants to take a civil perfectionist approach, and who actually enjoy seeing each of our cities grow with constantly added city-improvements and more, the CTP-2 five tabbed city-manager roundaboutly hidden within build-manager seems to be oncomming bad news. ):

One thing could save the situation somewhat: Is there a way to *bypass* that build-manager alltogether and have the that city-manager automatically popped up instead?

Its not the end of the world with that five tab City-screen - i just dont understand the design-logic behind this. Why not put all info in these tabs under ONE directly overviewable city-screen?
After all, they have upgraded the game to use up to 1280x1204 screen resolution, for crying out load. Most of us use 1024x768 wich should be more then enough.

There seems to be many nice features in CTP-2 that the Firaxis-guys could use as good examples.

How to present the game-backfeed in as instantly overviewable ways as possible, and with as little tab- and button-clicking/screen-manoeuverings as possible, is however NOT one of those features.